Newspaper companies to cut hundreds of jobs

Saturday

Jan 31, 2009 at 2:00 AMJan 31, 2009 at 5:54 AM

LOS ANGELES — Newspaper publisher AH Belo Corp, which counts the Providence (RI) Journal among its properties, said yesterday it will lay off 500 workers, or about 14 percent of its work force, and implement other cash-saving measures to cope with declining advertising revenue.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — Newspaper publisher A.H. Belo Corp., which counts the Providence (R.I.) Journal among its properties, said yesterday it will lay off 500 workers, or about 14 percent of its work force, and implement other cash-saving measures to cope with declining advertising revenue.

And Tribune Co.'s Los Angeles Times is cutting 300 positions and will shrink the number of daily sections to four from five.

Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton said in a memo to his employees that the cuts will include a 70-person reduction across the editorial department, or 11 percent, in the coming weeks.

Times publisher Eddy Hartenstein said the move to reduce the number of sections will occur March 2 and was intended to reap efficiencies in operations and distribution.

A.H. Belo Chief Executive Robert Decherd informed his staff in a memo yesterday and said more details would be available by mid-February.

Decherd did not say how much money the layoffs would save, but said other measures, such as suspending a savings plan match, raising parking and transportation charges to employees and reducing cell phone reimbursements would save or raise about $6.2 million a year.

"The decline in advertising revenues for the newspaper industry and all media persists," Decherd wrote. "The key for all companies, and certainly for A.H. Belo, is to generate and preserve cash."

In addition to the Providence Journal, Dallas-based A.H. Belo owns The Dallas Morning News, The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., and The Denton Record-Chronicle in Texas.

The company had about 3,460 workers, including full- and part-time positions, as of Sept. 30. The cuts come after the company said in October that it reduced its staff by 90 positions, on top of a 500-job reduction through voluntary severance offers that it announced in July.